Om Swami > Quotes

“If your own thoughts cannot provoke you, nothing external can provoke you either. Every external occurrence triggers an internal thought that may alter your state of mind. If you can just be the spectator and not the reactor or an adopter of the thought, the thought becomes powerless.”
― Om Swami, The Wellness Sense: A Practical Guide to Your Physical and Emotional Health Based on Ayurvedic and Yogic Wisdom

“any thought that gives you peace is a positive thought. The more you fill your mind with positive thoughts, the better your state of mind will be. And that naturally results in better physical health.”
― Om Swami, The Wellness Sense: A Practical Guide to Your Physical and Emotional Health Based on Ayurvedic and Yogic Wisdom

“Our identification with the body is so strong that most people spend their lives simply taking care of the body. The body feels cold, let’s clothe it; it feels hot, let’s remove the layers; it’s hungry, feed it; it’s tired, give it rest. We become so preoccupied with fulfilling the body’s many desires—cleaning, feeding, clothing, decorating and protecting it, that we become its slaves.”
― Om Swami, If Truth Be Told: A Monk's Memoir

“The consistent and persistent man of average intelligence is more likely to succeed than an erratic and lazy genius.”
― Om Swami, The Last Gambit

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
― Om Swami, When All Is Not Well: Depression and Sadness -- A Yogic Perspective

“For years I thought, real life was about to begin. For years I thought something big, something grand was going to happen in my life and I would suddenly start feeling happier. I thought what I was living was not my real life, that I was meant to do something else. And one day I would be free of all shackles, I would be free of all my engagements. Then I would embark upon this journey of discovering myself, of being happy, of always being fulfilled. But there was always some unfinished business. There was a bill to be paid, there was a call to be made, and there was an email to be replied to … so, no matter how much I ticked off, there was always some stuff still left. There was always some obstacle on the path of my happiness. One day, it dawned that these obstacles were my life.”
― Om Swami, When All Is Not Well: Depression and Sadness -- A Yogic Perspective

“When we cling to a thought or follow its track, we are performing a mental karma, and that, in turn, is the seed of all physical actions.”
― Om Swami, A Million Thoughts

“For if I’m doing anything in my life out of choice, there’s no reason to complain and if I don’t have a choice then there’s no sense in complaining.”
― Om Swami, Mind Full to Mindful: Zen Wisdom From a Monk's Bowl

“At the root of all emotions patients of depression experience, there are three primary feelings: first, a sense of insecurity; second, a sense of vulnerability; and finally, a sense of isolation. They”
― Om Swami, When All Is Not Well: Depression and Sadness -- A Yogic Perspective

“The universe is trillions of years old, our galaxy and planet are billions of years old. The human race is a few million years old, while the average human life is seventy years. It’s a very short life. It must be celebrated, it must be lived. Life is not a challenge that needs to be faced. Nor is it an enemy that needs to be fought. For that matter, it’s not a problem that needs solving either. It’s a flowing river, and all we need to do is to flow with it,’ I said. ‘Live. Love. Laugh. Give.”
― Om Swami, If Truth Be Told: A Monk's Memoir

“It is something quite difficult to rise above the desire to be complimented and accepted. You can move beyond anger and lust, you can remain unaffected in gain or loss, but to let go the need for another’s approval, what is said or thought about you, isn’t easy at all. It takes great insight and a strong sense of self-worth to move beyond this need.”
― Om Swami, If Truth Be Told: A Monk's Memoir

“Whatever we feel we lack in life, whenever anyone gives us that, we equate it with love. It could be attention or intimacy for some or appreciation and spending quality time for others. Love is different things to different people.”
― Om Swami, When All Is Not Well: Depression and Sadness -- A Yogic Perspective

“Concentration is the act of building focus and meditation is the art of retaining it without losing awareness.”
― Om Swami, Kundalini — An Untold Story: A Himalayan Mystic's Insight into the Power of Kundalini and Chakra Sadhana

“If you are able to terminate the thought in your head though, the desire or emotion will disappear like it never existed. This”
― Om Swami, Kundalini — An Untold Story: A Himalayan Mystic's Insight into the Power of Kundalini and Chakra Sadhana

“This constant play of nature – one season comes, then goes, another one comes, then goes – is what life is all about. It’s not about some grand goal. Zen does not believe in that. Zen says, nirvana or moksha is simply a matter of perspective. If you can eat when you are eating, if you can sleep when you are sleeping, you are jivan-mukta, a liberated soul. You are enlightened.”
― Om Swami, Mind Full to Mindful: Zen Wisdom From a Monk's Bowl

“Practice of gratitude lends incredible emotional strength. If you are emotionally strong, you can succeed at anything, anything at all. Gratitude makes you emotionally pure and such purity in turn allows you to love unconditionally.”
― Om Swami, A Million Thoughts

“The biggest problem with poverty is the shame that comes with it. When you give the best you have to someone in need, it translates into something much deeper to the receiver. It means they are worthy. If it’s not good enough for you, it’s not good enough for those in need either. Giving the best you have does more than feed an empty belly – it feeds the soul.”
― Om Swami, The Book of Kindness: How to Make Others Happy and Be Happy Yourself

“Thoughts that you do not let go leave an imprint on your mind. That imprint is the residue. Meditation is the process of washing away that residue. It is the cleaning of your slate and keeping it that way. When we fail to abandon our thoughts, they assume different forms. They can become desires, expectations or emotions.”
― Om Swami, A Million Thoughts

“Forgiveness sympathizes and compassion empathizes. And love? Love synthesizes the two. Appreciation”
― Om Swami, A Fistful of Love

“Peace doesn't mean a life devoid of adversities, troubles and challenges. Instead, it means to be surrounded by all of that and yet have faith and be calm. That is the real meaning of peace.”
― Om Swami, A Fistful of Love

“Awakening of the kundalini is realization of your pure abstract intelligence, the type that is not conditioned by your fears, emotions and worries. It is your pristine nature. When you are able to tap into this latent source of energy, you truly become the master of your universe. You can manifest whatever you wish in your life because your scale of consciousness is no longer limited to your body alone; it envelops the whole universe. If”
― Om Swami, Kundalini — An Untold Story: A Himalayan Mystic's Insight into the Power of Kundalini and Chakra Sadhana

“Expectations are those desires you believe you have the right to see fulfilled. Due to our own conditioning by numerous factors, we develop expectations. They are the primary cause of all grief and stress. When we expect, we place a burden on ourselves as well as the one we expect from.”
― Om Swami, A Million Thoughts

“Awakening of the kundalini is putting an end to attracting the wrong things in our lives. It begins by feeling and experiencing the completeness and fulfillment within us.”
― Om Swami, Kundalini — An Untold Story: A Himalayan Mystic's Insight into the Power of Kundalini and Chakra Sadhana

“The tree laden with fruits is always a bit bent. Not because of any burden but because it has something to offer. Humility”
― Om Swami, A Million Thoughts

“Do not get so busy living that you give yourself no time to breathe.”
― Om Swami, A Fistful of Love

“Success by design is infinitely better than a win by chance.’ Success”
― Om Swami, The Last Gambit

“The thing about depression is it blurs your perception of the future and makes it nearly impossible to see that end. You start to think that there’s no such thing as ‘winning’, and why bother fighting if you already know the outcome. It gradually strips you of any hope you previously had. And without hope, it’s difficult to see a future or a reason to fight.”
― Om Swami, When All Is Not Well: Depression and Sadness -- A Yogic Perspective

“And the greatest support you can extend to a patient of depression is acceptance. Accept and understand that she is not intentionally behaving in a dysfunctional manner. Something deep within is broken which is making her behave like this.”
― Om Swami, When All Is Not Well: Depression and Sadness -- A Yogic Perspective

“When we start to tame the body and its needs, taming the mind becomes easier.”
― Om Swami, If Truth Be Told: A Monk's Memoir

“Where roads are made, I lose my way. In the wide water, in the blue sky there is no line of a track. The pathway is hidden by the birds’ wings, by the starfires, by the flowers of the wayfaring seasons. And I ask my heart if its blood carries the wisdom of the unseen way. – Rabindranath Tagore, "VI," Fruit-Gathering When you pursue what matters to you, the end result may or may not be what you desire, but it will leave you a better, stronger, wiser, happier person. You will not feel lost, you will not feel tired, and there will be no anxiety. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
― Om Swami, A Fistful of Love